Indus Valley Civilisation 01/02 | The Identity of Pakistanis? | Faisal Warraich

0:03 How are you friends? A question is often raised that... ...who are historically the people living in the Pakistan region around the river Indus? These are the children of the Indus Valley,... ...the ancient inhabitants of the Indus River,... ...the descendants of the Harappan and Monju Daru people,... ...the Aryans,... ...the Turks, the Arabs, the Persians or the Mongols, their descendants? The name of Pakistan is due to this major confusion which... ...has robbed Pakistanis of their historical identity? This vlog will show you the people historically living in the region of Pakistan.

0:50 About 9000 years ago, these mud walls were constructed and... ...are the remains of the largest city in the world Mehargarh. This place is in the Bolan district of the present Pakistani province of Balochistan. This place begot the first and largest known civilization in human history. That is the Indus Valley Civilization, also known as Harappan Civilization. From Mehrgarh this civilization advanced... ...and spread to a large part of present day Pakistan and India. Spread over an area of ​​about 800,000 square kilometres, this civilization ...had five major cities and 2000 small and large villages and towns.

1:39 At least one million people lived in these settlements. This civilization was nurtured by the flowing currents of the Indus River. The inhabitants would drive boats on the water, grow fields, eat fish,... ...and live in concrete houses... ...and separately build large ponds for bathing. They would also trade with distant areas. The men and women all wore jewellery and had many festivals,... ...wherein they danced as dancing statues and images have been found from there. Because they were modern and advanced people of their time. This civilization flourished for thousands of years. But 3900 years ago, it all disappeared for reasons unknown.

2:25 The whole civilization was lost somewhere. The Harappan civilization vanished in a way that for 3500 years ago people didn't... ...know they were standing on the ruins of a great civilization. People from many different worlds came to India... ...Chinese, Greek, Arabic, Afghani, and Irani all came. They all remained unaware of the existence of this civilization. Although some of its ruins were before the people,... ...the locals saw them without realising, their historical significance. Some thought them a mound of the dead and others the abode of ancient giants. The lack of understanding and appreciation buried these walls and doors. However, before this civilization had quietly lost its last vestige of time...

3:16 ...some people's attention went a little deeper to these crumbling ruins. Then the journey of their discovery surprised the experts at every step. The first discovered city of the Indus Valley Civilization... ...was the Harappan region in Punjab. Harrappa is located near Sahiwal in Punjab. A few small walls and a few other traces of this city remain today. However, 200 years ago, a significant part of this city was safe. There were also robust walls in this place. But the problem was that... ...since the local population was not aware of their importance,... ... therefore, they inventively caused it great loss. People would use their bricks in the construction of houses and roads.

4:05 Then, when the Multan-Lahore railway track was laid during the British rule... ...this city also came under damage. The contractors stole bricks from here to construct this railway track. Thus, this city, which was the best example of archeology,... and its ruins were also destroyed. Nothing remained except a few foundations. The people who first understood the importance of Harappa... ...was a British spy working for the East India Company. This Whiteman was James Lewis. He came to Punjab on a spying mission during the era of Raja Ranjit Singh. He moved around in different parts of Punjab under the name of Charles Mason. During that time, he reached Harappa and saw traces of a fort and some buildings...

4:50 ...and reported it to the East India Company. He was convinced there might have been a huge ancient city... ...which was probably destroyed by Alexander the Great. This place was called Harappa by local people, he also wrote in the report. Many stories are also known about how Harappa got its name. One version is that the name came after the Punjabi language became common. According to this theory, Harappa is derived from the Punjabi word 'Harap'. It means to devour. The city was destroyed over time, so the locals called it 'Harap', Which means a city engulfed by destruction. It is said that 'Harap' later distorted and became 'Harappa'.

5:37 As per another narrative, the holy book of Hindus, Rigveda, mentions... ...a city named 'Hariupia' which was Harappa. Later, Hariupia somehow got corrupted into Harappa. However, it is not possible to confirm or deny any of these stories today. James Lewis alias Charles Mason was the first person.... ...to draw the attention of the elders of the East India Company... ...to the historical importance of Harappa. However, the East India Company could not conduct any research in this place. Obviously, Punjab was ruled by Raja Ranjit Singh at that time... ...and without his permission, this project was not possible... ...and the British were not on good terms with Raja Ranjit.

6:23 So the British had to wait for a long time for their own research. Ranjit Singh died in 1849. After 1100 years in 1859, Punjab was taken over by the East India Company... ...the British turned their attention to this city. The British Archaeological Survey of India was set up to research the history of India. In 1871, Alexander Cunningham was made the Director General... ...of the Archaeological Survey of India. He was the director till 1885. He kickstarted active work for research on the history of Harappa. Alexander Cunningham ordered excavations at the Harappan ruins.

7:12 During excavation, an object was found that changed the course of history. About that object, Cunningham writes... ..."It was a 'seal' a stamp on a black stone,... ...with the image of a bull on,... ...but the bull did not have the hump. There were also some words written on it, but I couldn't read them. He also wrote the words were not in the Indian language, nor the bull had a hump... ...therefore I think this seal did not belong to India. Because Indian bulls have a hump on their back... So it has been a common observation of the people for centuries. If they made this seal, it would never have been of a bull without a hump. Maybe this seal is of a civilization that is very different from the Indian civilization.

8:05 The discovery of the seal disclosed the mystery that... ...Harappa was no ordinary historical city,... ...but a gem linked to an extraordinarily ancient and advanced civilization. Cunningham had realized this, but he could not fully prove it. This was because of the lack of advanced technology, not available to him... ...to accurately estimate the age of ancient objects,... ...as we do today with radiocarbon dating... ...but in the 19th century, this facility was not available. Much of the works of archaeological experts were based on guesses. For further research, they would take important discoveries... ...with him to keep them in the special environment of museums. So the Harpan seal that Cunningham found...

8:52 ...was also taken to the British Museum in London and is still there. At that time, India was ruled by the British. The Britishers would take all the antiquities from their colonies to Britain. Initially, archaeologist Cunningham had said... ...that this seal does not belong to India, but soon the situation changed when... ..further research on the writing on the seal came to light. In 1877, Cunningham wrote the seal had words from an ancient Hindi script text... ...that dates back to the 5th century BCE, that is 2500 years ago. During the research, excavation work was also going on at Harappa.

9:37 Two more seals were recovered from here in the 1880s. One had the same animal image on the seal Cunningham received earlier. But the image of the animal was not very clear on the seal Cunningham had. So he mistook it for a bull. But the second seal found in 1880 was quite clear. On observation, it dawned upon the experts... ...that it was not the picture of a bull but a unicorn. That is an imaginary animal like a horse with a horn on its forehead. Such an animal was mentioned in ancient folklore,... ...but actually, no one had ever seen such an animal.

10:23 In Greek and Roman history, one such animal "unicorn" is mentioned... ...and the stories finding of mention of it, related to the river Indus... ...and are linked to the surrounding areas of it. The seal also showed the unicorn concept went to Europe through the Indus Valley. In 1912, the photographs of these three seals... ...were published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. In 1912, John Marshall was the Director General of the Archaeological Survey. When he saw these three pictures, he developed a special interest in Harappa. He ordered to speed up the excavation work there. The new excavation discovered many other items and two more seals.

11:13 John Marshall was sure that Harappa was to be the first door to a great discovery. He writes the excavations of Harappa can open the doors of the history of India... ...which will reveal completely new things about the history of this region. So John Marshall went on to work on Harappa. From 1921 to 1924,... ...Indian archaeologist Diya Ram Sahni supervised the excavation work... However, simply by excavating a city, it was not possible to know... ...how large and ancient a civilization it was a part of... ...and how large an area the civilization it was a part of was spread. So, around 1919 and 1920, there was a new discovery that shook everyone.

12:06 It was a discovery of the discovery of another city in this chain. This city was Mohanjo Daro. Mohenjo Daro was discovered near the city of Larkana in Sindh. Mohenjo Daro means 'Mound of the Dead' in Sindhi. Why this place is called so, has been lost somewhere in history. Possibly, anytime the locals found bodies or bone structures in the mounds... ...whereof, the mound was named, the Mound of dead. When the experts of the Archaeological Survey of India examined this place... ...they found this domed-like building. At first, they thought it might have been a place of Buddhist worship... ...and that there had been an ancient city of the same religion. They started digging the dunes at that place.

12:53 In excavation, an archeology expert Rakhal Das Bannerji found some seals. They were exactly the same seals as those recovered from Harappa, ...that is, unicorns were also carved on these seals. This discovery created a stir all around. Experts came to know these two cities were part of one great civilization. Archaeologists soon arrived at a conclusion that... ...this newly discovered civilization widely differed from other Indian civilizations. The rest meant they did not emanate from Buddhism, Hinduism, or other civilization. It seemed to have developed in a completely different manner...

13:38 ...because there was no influence in its traces... ...no such signs which could show... ...that its roots came from outside, outside India. Or, any known civilization here is the result of its evolution. It seemed that this civilization was developed entirely by the local people... ...and that too without any outside help. John Marshall was enthralled by the Indus Valley Civilization... ...but due to the lack of modern technology... ...he was unable to determine the exact age of this civilization. They only guessed that this civilization must be at least 3000 years old. But his guess was completely wrong.

14:24 It soon became clear that this civilization was much older than they thought. Now how did this estimate? The research on Harappa and Mohenjo Daro was published at the global level... ...the experts all over the world, saw minutely. They also researched the ancient cities in Mesopotamia, i.e. Iraq. These experts were shocked to see unicorn seals. They contacted the Archaeological Survey of India. They said that very similar seals have been found in Iraq... ...which were more than 4000 years old. This little proof neared this civilization to the civilizations settled in Mesopotamia. It must be 4000 to 5000 years old.

15:09 The experts of the Iraqi civilization even presented the theory that... ...the people who settled Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro might have come from Iraq. The first civilization of Mesopotamia is called the Cimmerian Civilization. This civilisation also started writing. As such, the Indus Valley Civilization was named the Indo-Cimmerian Civilization. However, Ernest Mackay, an expert on Cimmerian civilization, came to India. Maybe on his request, John Marshall left the name Indo-Cimmerian Civilization... ...and called it simply Indus Valley Civilization. Dr. Ernest Mackay proved a revolutionary in research on the Indus Valley Civilization. From 1926 to 1931, he excavated Mohenjo Daro with great effort.

16:01 This excavation brought out this city from under the soil in its present form. The present state of Mohenjo Daro is the fruit of the efforts of Ernest Mackay. It was a city with streets, sewer lines, walls, everything... ...that an ancient rich city should have. But there were two more things in it besides all these. And these were icons. The statue here is called 'Priest King.' It was exhumed from Mohenjo Daro in the 1920s. This statue was not found in good condition... ...and was very dilapidated. Its arms were severed and the nose was also broken.

16:47 There was a big scratch on the face. But the special thing about this thousands of years old statue was... ...that it had a crown on its head. Its body was dressed as if he was wearing a cloak or shawl... ...and that too a floral sheet, like the Sindhi Shawl, is made of. From the robes and crown of the statue, experts guessed... ...that this statue must be of a king or at least of a high priest... ...who used to lead religious rituals. A name was given to this sculpture by combining these two factors. That name was Priest King. In Mohenjo Daro, replicas of priestly Kings are also sold with other antiques. A large statue of him has been installed separately at the site of Mohenjo Daro.

17:38 After Priest-King, this pond was the most important discovery of Mohenjo Daro. It is one of the premier bathing pools in the world. Probably the oldest. It is about 39 feet in length, and 23 feet in breadth, and about 8 feet in depth. As archaeologists continued to examine the city of Mohenjo Daro... ...many of its secrets were unveiled. Although the Harappan city near Sahiwal had been excavated earlier... ...Mohenjo Daro was found far better preserved. For the first time, experts saw a true form of the cities of the ancient Indus Valley. It was clear that whoever built Mohenjo Daro had built it with great planning.

18:26 There were big houses in the city... ...a network of streets was laid and there were canals paved on the sides... ...and a mathematical arrangement to drain water from the houses and the city. The main street of the city was 11 metres, over 36 feet wide. Every house also had a small water well. This system was the most advanced of its time. Because all this has not been found in such an old civilization until today. Interestingly, this system is still working after 4500 years. In 2022, when there were heavy rains in Sindh... ...the water pooled in Mohenjo Daro drained through these ancient channels.

19:15 Experts believe Mohenjo Daro was the largest city of the Indus Valley Civilization. As per some estimates, its population ranged from 40,000 to 200,000. Mohenjo Daro has become an important symbol of the ancient history of Pakistan. In Pakistan, only the image of Mohenjo Daro is printed on the 20 rupee note. Mohenjo Daro, located near the Indus River... ..traded with the civilizations of Iraq and Egypt via the Arabian Sea. This is also indicated by stones found at Mohenjo Daro on which boats are carved. In the ancient writings of Iraq, there is a mention of a city called Maluha... ...which was located somewhere in the Far East. Experts believe that this Maluha is actually Mohenjo Daro.

20:00 Other populations of the Indus Valley, numbering more than 2,000... ...used to send their goods to Iraq and Egypt through this city. Necklaces of precious stones were also exported to Iraq from the Indus Valley... ...which were worn by the wealthiest people there. Necklaces of the Indus Valley were also found in the Iraqi royal cemetery in Ur. Because there are symbols on them which resemble those found here. Signs show the people of the Indus Valley Civilization knew how to read and write. They would write on their seals which were in the form of pictures. These texts are called indus scripts. Many experts from Europe, India, Japan, China, Russia and America... ...have tried to read this script...

20:46 ...but they have so far failed. They know that the writing style was from right to left like Urdu and Persian. Another important aspect of the Indus Valley Civilization that came to light... ...was that the people there were very peaceful. Because no weapon or military equipment was found in the excavation. Neither city has protective walls or fortifications. Apart from this, no place of worship or palace-like building is visible in any city. For this reason, the government system of this civilization is still a mystery. About religion, however, some inferences have been made from statues and seals. One statue is of a woman wearing several necklaces and something like a crown on her head.

21:32 It is believed to be a statue of a goddess. Another broken seal has also been found at Mohenjo Daro. It is an image of a three-faced deity sitting legfold. An axe-like object is placed under it. On its head is a crown of horns. While some images of animals are also made around it. It was probably an animal deity. Another image is of a priest sitting before a deity. Similarly, a statue of a man sitting with his hands on his knees as if praying. The statues and seals prove that people believed in some gods and goddesses. However, it is not known about their worship methods, etc...

22:18 ...how were their festivals, it is not known. By 1947, 37 sites of the Indus Valley had been discovered in India. After the 1947 partition, work on this civilization started in Pakistan and India. During this time, more than 1000 such sites were discovered in both countries. Then it surfaced this civilization was spread over ​​at least 800,000 sq-km. Over 100 of these 1,000 sites have been excavated to some extent. The remaining sites are yet to be excavated. Excavations so far have yielded precious stone necklaces,...

23:05 ...pots, figurines of women and men,... ...toy bullock carts,... ...seals with images of bullocks,... ...articles of sports like chess and batons used for weighing. All these things are preserved in museums in London, Pakistan and India. Some of them are original and some are replicas of things that were lost. Cemeteries were also discovered at these sites. When the graves were excavated, along with the human remains,... ...utensils and various items of daily use were also found. It was found that these people also had some kind of belief in life after death. This is why vessels filled with foods...

23:53 ...and other things were buried with the men... ...so that they would be useful in the next life, what they believed. Examination of the bones and teeth found in the cemetery at Harappa revealed... ...that the average age of these dead was a little over 30 years. One in six lived to age 55 or more. They were discovered over time but two questions about the Indus Valley... ...were the most important. The first question, where did this civilization begin from? And secondly, where did it suddenly disappear? Experts found the answer to the first question. that the Indus Valley Civilization is a declared first known one in the world.

24:38 Meaning is older than Iraqi and Egyptian civilizations... ...and its first city was Mehrgarh in Balochistan. The ruins of this city can still be seen in Bolan district. Ur, an ancient city in Iraq, was settled 5800 years ago. Similarly, Memphis, the oldest capital of Egypt, was settled 5100 years ago. Compared to them, remains of Mehrgarh inhabitants are 8 to 9000 years old. The maximum population of this city was 20,000. Mehrgarh was discovered in the 19th century by a French expert, Jean Francis. French archaeological teams recovered artefacts of pottery and sculptures.

25:25 Experts believe this population led to the creation of the Indus Valley Civilization. That is, its citizens later spread throughout the Indus Valley region... ...and built great cities like Mohenjo Daro and Harappa. More excavations around Mehrgarh civilization can answer many vital queries. Which not only the Indus Valley, the humanity is looking for. However, due to military operations and tribal conflicts in Balochistan,... ...excavation and archaeological survey in Mehrgarh has become impossible. The government is also not paying special attention to it. Among hundreds of sites in the Indus Valley are also in India.

26:13 A lot of work has been done on them. Indian archaeologists and historians also accept the Indus Valley Civilization... ...to be 8 to 9000 years old. These historians examined ancient objects in the Indian state of Haryana. They concluded that the Indus Valley civilization is at least 8000 years old. It means that it started from Mehrgarh according to the known ruins... ...and expanded to 800,000 square kilometres. Compared to them, the civilizations of Egypt and Iraq are 5000 to 7000 years old. Righlty, the earliest known human civilization arose around the Indus River. Looking at the Pakistani map, you will see that the Indus River runs through it... ...like a backbone.

27:00 Pakistan and Indian Punjab are actually inheritors of the Indus River civilization. The same civilization called Ind, Indh, Hind, or Hindustan since ancient times. Thus, the experts found the answer to the first question... ...where did the Indus Valley Civilization begin from? That is, Mehrgarh was its beginning. But the second question is how did the Indus Valley Civilization end? The answer to this question is still under wraps. This secret of history exists today as bigger than that of the pyramids in Egypt. Some experts in the Indus Valley speculate a long dry spell caused drought. That is, the global climate changed and this civilization ended. This is called the dry season theory.

27:46 Some believe the Aryans from Central Asia, ended this civilization. Others believe this civilization was perished by massive deforestation... ...and diversion of rivers. Because people had left this place and settled in other areas. This theory is not given much weight. It is also said that a "Saraswati" river flew through this area... ...on the banks of which this civilization grew up. But 4000 years ago, due to a major climate change, the river dried up. This caused the destruction of crops in the Indus Valley... ...and people gradually migrated from this place. They moved to various other places and settled.

28:32 Bear in mind, when we say that a certain civilization ended... ...it does not mean all the people living died suddenly or over some time. This means that these people either migrated or went somewhere else... ...or more advanced or violent people came and defeated them. After that, the victorious people built new cities in their own style... ...and developed their civilization in the same place in a new style. The old people were either taken as slaves... ...or they settled far away in small settlements. The early form of the Indus Valley Civilization called Harappan Civilization... ...had disappeared from history. How did it disappear? It is disputed.

29:19 But there is no dispute that this civilization was not destroyed overnight. It gradually declined in different areas and periods and ended. So it is divided into Early Harappan Period, Middle Harappan Period and... ...the Late Harappan Period. In such a case, the question where is the last sign of this civilization? That is, how long can we say with certainty that it was there until so many years ago... ...and after that where did it go? Last traces of the Indus Valley civilization date back to the 19th century BCE. That is, from today until 3900 years ago.

30:05 After that, its cities were completely deserted. Where did the inhabitants of these cities, the sons of the soil, go? Where did they go who toiled for thousands of years to nurture this land? The truth is, no one knows about it today. Like the Indus Valley civilization, the end journey of the people is also a mystery. This secret will probably be revealed when all the major sites are excavated, Further remains and antiques would be found out... ...and most importantly, the Indus script would become readable. Till today the secret of the ancient writings of the Indus Valley is unrevealed. Ancient writings of Iraq, Egypt and China have been read... ...but the Indus Valley script has not been read. One of the reasons is the writing samples found here are very small.

30:55 Nothing more than a few words and a few sentences. Deciphering writing requires a bit more reading material. Then the writings of a period close to it are also needed. Which we do not have about the Indus Valley civilisation. If this is done anytime, the people may find the missing chapter of their past. Where did the ancient inhabitants of Harappa and Monjodaro go? But history definitely tells us that Aryans came here after them. They maintained both their culture and identity very well. When, how and from where did these people come to India? How did they dominate India so shortly?

31:41 Did the Aryans have anything to do with the Indus Valley Civilization? We will discuss all this in the next and last vlog. Israel has attacked the small Gaza Strip many times with thousands of bombs. Click on this playlist to see details from every angle of this battle of October 2023. Here is the story of the First World War, and here is... ...the complete story of the 800 years of Muslim rule in Andalusia.